Almost There Extra: Tilda in "We Need to Talk About Kevin"
Friday, January 31, 2020 at 1:00PM A bonus episode of "Almost There" (Claudio's Monday afternoon series) this week. Here's Eric Blume on a 2011 race...
There was a sad surprise when the 2011 Oscar nominations were read: Tilda Swinton did not make the Best Actress slate, despite checking every precursor box along the way. She had nominations from SAG, the BAFTAs, and the Golden Globes, but Oscar overlooked her magnificent performance.
Three of the nominees for the Oscar that year were considered locks: Meryl (who won, of course) for The Iron Lady; Viola Davis for The Help; and Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn. But the final two to make the list were Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs and Rooney Mara for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo...
Close and Mara were on the bubble that year. While both were nominated for the Globes, and Close also for SAG, at the time it seemed like nobody liked Albert Nobbs (probably because it is an aggressively bad movie).
Probably nobody liked We Need to Talk About Kevin, either, but that particular film was not made to be liked. It's an excruciatingly painful movie, positing a horrifying question at its center: what do you do when you hate your kid? This is not a topic anyone wants to discuss, let alone spend two hours contemplating on a complex level. It's a shame, because Lynne Ramsay directs this movie with the precision of a surgeon, and with uncompromising honesty.
Swinton scales huge heights in this movie, layering guilt, panic, and abject fear into a portrait of lacerating power. It's an almost Shakespearean role, with she tackles with her typical fearlessness. Close and Mara do fine by their roles, but they're not operating on the same level as Swinton. Then again, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was well-loved by the Academy with five total nominations, although I personally think it's one of David Fincher's weaker films. And I'll probably anger everyone reading (Meryl and Viola fans especially) by saying Swinton was better than ANYBODY that year.
We need to talk about Tilda and her missing nomination. She's never been welcomed back into the club after earning one of the most deserving Supporting Actress Oscars ever. Sound off in the comments, please!
Reader Comments (28)
Tilda 100% should've been there. So excellent in that film, the waves of emotion she conveys with just an expression.
She wasn't quite on the bubble, but Elisabeth Olsen also deserved a nod for "Martha Marcy May Marlene" (as did Sarah Paulson in supporting). Kick out Meryl and Glenn and you'd have this very respectable lineup among actresses in serious nomination conversation:
Viola Davis, "The Help"
Michelle Williams, "My Week with Marilyn"
Rooney Mara, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"
Tilda Swinton, "We Need to Talk About Kevin"
Elisabeth Olsen, "Martha Marcy May Marlene"
I unapologetically love Albert Nobbs and still think Tilda Swinton and Elizabeth Olsen should have been nominated for Best Actress. I would have bumped Meryl Streep and Rooney Mara. I think The Iron Lady is pretty terrible and the makeup really obscured Streep's performance. Mara was good in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but the film (and her performance) were nowhere near as good as the original.
I wonder how many more entries we could get in this series just looking at Tilda Swinton performances. I know We Need to Talk about Kevin is the closest she came, but there was significant momentum for Julia and Snowpiercer, as well.
Tilda or Michelle should have won that year.
We Need to Talk About Kevin is one of the best films of the decade.
And, the book it is based on by Lionel Shriver is equally jaw-dropping
The film and the book are quite different, and this is a great example of a director taking liberties with a source material and making a unique film that is great in a completely different way.
I like Tilda and would have nominated her 4 times by now but not for this she feels wrong for this part and I understood why she was left off I think Olsen & Dunst were more deserving.
Michelle Williams is no Marilyn and doesn't even come close to capturing anything about the legend at all.
Close's make up is weirder than Meryl's and Janet McTeer is all wrong too.
The collosal performances that should have won were Charlize who everyone knows is giving one of her best performances in Young Adult or Olivia Colman in Tyrannosaur.
Meh, this one doesn't really bother me. It's such a bad, risible film in so many ways, and I never really thought Swinton was able to transcend the "Omen" parody-level self-seriousness.
@markgordonuk: In a perfect world, Colman would've won for Tyrannosaur (there really was no performance better that year, it was phenomenal) and Close for The Wife last year.
2011 was a really good year for actresses but the academy got it wrong! Only davis deserved her nominatation!
Agreed re Theron. She's easily my winner. Swinton should have definitely scored a nomination though.
Anyway she won at European Film Awards
@markgordonuk-Totally agree. And what about Dunst and Gainsbourg in Melancholia? Such a year for actresses!
Colman, Tyrannosaur
Dunst, Melancholia
Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene
Swinton, We Need To Talk About Kevin
Theron, Young Adult
Wow, you can easily make up an entire list of people that are worthier than the actual nominees that year, and we're not even discussing foreign language performances.
Streep deserved the Oscar that year, and I was happy she won, but I will agree Swinton should have been nominated.
That one-two-three punch of Julia (‘09), I Am Love (‘10), and Kevin (‘11) was astonishing. She totally deserved the nomination.
Theron's performance is beyond exceptional and nuanced. Swinton would be my runner-up with Olsen a very close third. I remember loving Mara's Lisbeth Salander at the time (I can't believe the Academy nominated her though, but I'm very glad they did) and liking Close's quiet work in Albert Nobbs. I didn't buy Williams's Marilyn and hated Streeps's pantomime.
This year was so magnificent...but you'd never tell from the Oscar list.
Olsen, Dunst, Coleman, Theron and Binoche would have been my lineup...with Paquin just on the outside.
Forgot about Dunst. Excellent as well!
To me, the line-up should've been... (in no particular order)
1. Tilda Swinton-We Need to Talk About Kevin
2. Kirsten Dunst-Melancholia
3. Charlize Theron-Young Adult
4. Elizabeth Olsen-Martha Marcy Mae Marlene
5. Mia Wasikowska-Jane Eyre
Honorable mentions: Michelle Williams-Take This Waltz, Anna Paquin-Margaret, Brit Marling-Sound of My Voice, Adeparo Oduye-Pariah, Rooney Mara-The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Felicity Jones-Like Crazy, and Berenice Bejo-The Artist.
This Oscar lineup is the worst reflection of this year.
I would have had:
Theron
Dunst (two of the best leading actresses performances full stop this decade/century and would make my top 5 of the decade - easily)
Swinton
Williams
Streep
(Ranked in order of preference with Davis in supporting).
You gave Davis the gold this year Nat, does this still hold up for you?
Kevin is an excellent film and Swinton definitely deserved a nomination. But I’m with the others saying Theron should’ve won for Young Adult. I’d probably go Theron, Swinton, Dunst - and then maybe 2 out of Davis, Olsen, Bejo, and Colman.
Beside EFA, Tilda also won NBR best actress. So her snub was quite a huge shock.
I'd replace Tilda & Charlize or Durnst, w Glenn & Mara.
Mara shld've nom as Lead for Carol, anyway
I mean, 2011 was a disappointment all around as far as Oscar is concerned. Looking at what was nominated that year was by no means a reflection of the quality of the year as a whole. Some years they do a good job of representing the year, and some years they don't. This was definitely a don't.
For this category, I definitely think Tilda should have gotten in. I admit that in 2011, I fell under the spell of wanting Glenn Close to get a nomination; it was not based on the film (which is terrible) but just out of respect for her. I have since woken the fuck up.
Still, I struggle with Best Actress in 2011. None of the nominated spoke to me as a winner. Close was in a terrible movie and really had little to show as far as acting range with that muted character. Davis was good but in a terrible film and she was also category fraud. Mara probably would have gotten my vote because it definitely is a juicy character, but it never felt like a winning role. Meryl is also in an awful film and shows us nothing new. And Michelle is fine in a kind of bad film but this is clearly her weakest nominated performance.
And Tilda is great but, like Mara, this isn't the type of performance that wins televised awards. If I were a voter, I probably would have abstained from voting in this category.
So many good options that year, and a really terrible final lineup.
Potential nominees included...
-Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia
-Kristen Wiig in Bridesmaid
-Adepero Oduye in Pariah
-Elisabeth Olsen in Martha Marcy May Marlene
And Charlize in Young Adult! Knew there was someone I was leaving off. Truly could've been so much better.
The only nominee I felt deserved acting accolades was Viola Davis. Say what you want about the film, but she really elevates the material and breaks hearts.
We Need to Talk About Kevin provided suspense, but it wasn't really very realistic. Giving your kid a crossbow when he's displayed strange and malevolent behavior is just ridiculous – I don't care how stupid a parent is (or parents are). That's just one example from the movie that perturbed me. I like Swinton, but she seemed somewhat wrong for the role, still doing the best she could with the character.
Streep was good as usual, but also too hammy at times in The Iron Lady.
Davis has three noms for three similar roles/characters. She's such a great actress though.
Williams certainly tried, but she's no Marilyn Monroe. Who's that male impersonator from the 80s who nailed her better than any woman I've seen? I can't remember his name. He was on Donahue and later on Joan Rivers. He was amazing!
I didn't see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Close was fine and nuanced, but Albert Nobbs was a HUGE disappointment. Think of that character. She's incredible to say the least. The film could have been Close's swan song, and she was at the helm of it all (writing, starring, songwriting, producing). It kills me to think of what could've been achieved with that character form a psychological standpoint.
Theron was good, but I really don't think the role was as demanding for her. Theron was playing an ex-beauty–queen type. She IS a beauty–queen type.
As for the others mentioned in this post, I didn't see those films, so I can't comment.
With A–list performances, it's all a matter of opinion. They're all good!
@Mike
Is Jimmy James the impersonator that you talking about?
Swinton should have been nominated, although I found her absence in other years more upsetting (Julia in particular!). Theron, Olsen, Davis, Wiig, and Swinton would have been my nominees. Of the five actual nominees, I thought Close's nomination was the most ridiculous.
My Lineup this year would have been:
Dunst - Melancholia *
Swinton - WNTTAK
Wiig - Bridesmaids
Colman - Tyrannosaurus
Hatami - A Separation
HM: Theron - Young Adult, Anaya - The Skin i live in, Davis - The Help, Herán - Tomboy, Wasikowska - Jane Eyre, Adepero - Pariah
Unlike most, I don't really like Olsen's MMMM performance.
I agree that Rooney should not have been nominated instead of Swinton,still I think that her performance gets more hate than it should considering the level of that year's lineup. Although I agree that Rapace was better in the same role.
And I never understood the love for Williams' performance in MWWM, I think her performance was average and the fact that she won the Golden Globe (for a fraud) over Wiig and Theron and the Spirit Award with Olsan and Adepero nominated it's laughable.
@ César
That's him! Thanks.